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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. Psychology To manifest or experience perseveration.

Wiktionary

  1. v. describing the behavior, generally displayed by those with various developmental disabilities, of extraordinary, exclusive and lasting obsession to a detail or occurrence others consider minor.
  2. v. to repeat or continue a pattern.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. psychology: repeat a response after the cessation of the original stimulus

Etymologies

  1. Back-formation from perseveration.

Examples

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘perseverate’.

Comments

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  • oroboros I first and only time I ever heard this word used was by my girlfriend speech pathologist; "You're perseverating!" It was a good lesson: I never forgot it, nor do I perseverate (uh huh). Feb 20, 2010

  • bilby "We repeat ourselves. The mind perseverates. The road is rutted and grooved, and beside the road are familiar ditches."
    - Eric Maisel, 'Deep Writing: 7 Principles That Bring Ideas to Life'. Nov 17, 2009

‘perseverate’ has been looked up 1814 times, loved by 2 people, added to 18 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 16.